Kuan Zhai Road is a new Chinese Restaurant on the Border of Vancouver and Burnaby. They specialize in Chinese BBQ, grilled fish and spicy food.
I saw a few friends loving this place, so I made them take me with them. I love Chinese BBQ skewers and spicy food, so this seemed like the place for me.
The parking lot is small, so it fills up really fast. Most people just park on the side roads as there are more spaces.
Interior
The space has small to large tables so you can come with a few people or lots of people. You can also call ahead to reserve.
The are booth-style seating and smaller rectangular tables too. The space is a bit dusty and cluttered with storage in the dining area.
Menu
BBQ Skewers
The menu has a variety of skewers cooked in an assortment of spices like cumin. Most of the skewers had the same spice. Our favourite varieties that we got were Taiwanese sausage, shrimp, chicken gizzards, and pork. There are more adventurous items like duck tongue and lamb testicles if you dare to try.
The skewers were ok, but one of my friends felt it was a bit bland and could have used a lot more seasoning. We did ask them for a container of spice to make it spicier.
Smashed Cucumbers
This was really good! A good balanced between the chili oil, and vinegar. It complimented the skewers very nicely.
Spicy Pot
On the menu, you can order their spicy pot, then go to the large fridge to select your skewers that will be boiled in the hot and spicy broth for $6.90.
Each skewer is $0.69 and doesn’t matter if it’s meat or veggies. We didn’t want veggies, so my friends and I went for all the meat.
Once you collect your tray of skewers, they clip on your table number so they know the skewers belong to your table. You would think this would be straight forward right? The first time the hot pot of skewers arrived, we looked at it and it had vegetables so we knew right away it wasn’t ours. They couldn’t find our pot, so they made us pick all our skewers again. This time, I made sure the table marker was the right one so it doesn’t go to someone else’s table.
It was definitely annoying but we decided to give it another shot. When the second hot pot of skewers arrived…there were vegetables again so that meant it wasn’t ours. As we told our server, I don’t think she believed us, so we showed our pictures of the skewers on our phones and how we do not get skewers with veggies because we are all about the meat life.
They took the pot away and gave it to the correct table and then tried looking for our hot pot. It was probably 15 minutes later until the finally found our pot.
We ordered medium spicy for our hot pot, but it wasn’t very spicy at all. I was surprised it wasn’t any hotter as some Chinese food can by really spicy.
Final Thoughts
This visit was definitely a miss for us. I’ve heard it’s really good. Either way, I did have patience so I wasn’t too bothered by the service as there was always some food at the table to nibble on. In the end, they did give us $30 worth of vouchers to use next time. They definitely have some kinks to work out.
Address:
3488 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC
